No European country is better understood in Brussels than Britain. Many European officials grew up adoring The Smiths or Manchester United, studied in the UK and now work mostly in English. So when Britain’s foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt compared the EU to the USSR, Brussels understood he was merely pandering to the Conservative party conference. That still didn’t satisfy Britain’s Polish and Baltic friends, who remembered the actual USSR. They had been trying to nudge Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, towards generosity over Brexit. Now they won’t bother any more.
在布魯塞爾，沒有哪個歐洲國家比英國更爲人熟知。許多歐洲官員都是聽著「史密斯樂團」(The Smiths)，看著曼聯(Manchester United)長大的，他們曾在英國求學，現在工作也主要用英語。因此當英國外交大臣傑瑞米•杭特(Jeremy Hunt)將歐盟比作蘇聯時，布魯塞爾方面明白他只是在迎合保守黨(Conservative Party)大會。但這一解釋不足以安撫英國的波蘭以及波羅的海朋友們——他們記得真正的蘇聯是什麼樣的。先前他們試圖勸說歐盟首席談判代表米歇爾•巴尼耶(Michel Barnier)在英國退歐這件事上大方些。現在他們不再費心了。